Routine physical exercise has long been extolled by medical authorities as essential to good health and longevity. There have been devices which tell a person exercising on an exercising apparatus the amount of exercise accomplished by that person. Examples of these are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,493,485, 4,409,992 and 4,408,183. However, these devices have been limited to monitoring current use of the exercise machine. These devices gave no indication of the amount of present exercise activity as compared to the amount of previous exercise activity accomplished by the user of the equipment. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,485 the device provides a standard predetermined pace for the person to follow. The pace is based on a precalculated exercising profile of another, not on the user's past exercising efforts.
It is important that a person using exercise equipment be aware of how much exercise he has accomplished, and of any increase in the amount of exercise performed over time. It will be helpful if a record can be made of the user's performance, and later used to compare the present exercise routine with previous routines to measure the user's progress. The present invention encourages the user to perform a more efficient workout by comparing each exercise repetition of the exercise machine with the user's previous best efforts, or with a coach's performance.
A problem with previous computerized exercise monitoring equipment was the inability to exercise on various exercise equipment. In previous systems, the user was forced to continuously use the same machine. It would be desirable if a record of the user's performance is stored on a portable memory unit. The portable memory unit would be inserted into the exercise monitoring unit for each exercise machine. The portable memory unit (personal module) would contain data of a user's previous efforts on the exercise machine. The data on the personal module would be read by the exercise monitoring unit and would compare the present workout with the user's previous workout while the user is exercising. The personal module would also store information about previous workouts such as date of workout, weight use, exercise repetitions completed, and average accuracy of the repetitions. The system would provide a person with the ability of comparing his workouts with previous workouts. The user would progress in his workout compared to his own ability, rather than compared to another's workout. The present invention provides such a system.
Another advantage of this system is its adaptability to various types of exercise machines. Each exercise machine has an exercise monitoring main unit and an exercise monitoring screen attached to it. The exercise monitoring screen constantly displays the user's performance data and a count of the completed repetitions. The exercise monitoring main unit computes the users previous pace and monitors his present pace compared to the previous pace on a display. The display shows graphically whether the exercise user is performing the exercise for maximum physical performance, based upon the user's previous performance.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an exercise system and method for providing a progressive exercise routine for a person based on his own ability.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and a method for providing progressive training on various exercise machines.
It a further object of the present invention to provide a more efficient workout to the user by comparing each exercise repetition with the user's previous best effort, or with his past performance.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a pacing signal for the user based on his own ability.
It is still a further object of the present invention to store the user's past performances on a portable exercise monitoring personal module, so that the user can recall past performances on the exercising machine.
It is a further object of the present invention to display data regarding the user's previous performance so it may be compared to present performance.
It is a further object to provide an exercise monitoring analyzer to report to the user progress on his present workout performance.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a user with a portable exercise monitoring personal module which contains the user's previous efforts.
A further object of the present invention is to provide to the user with an indication of how to change his rate of exercising to obtain the maximum benefit from the exercise routine.
Another object of the present invention is to compute the primary faults of the user during his exercise routine and display them in an easily readable form.